Chapter 704: Elegant and Calm

“To the left! Yes! A little to the left! Be careful! Paint some over there too! Don’t cover the number!” Rein stood beside his Tiger tank, directing Alice and Bruce as they painted the entire vehicle in white winter camouflage. Because it was being done by hand, the tank looked a little messy and exaggerated.

But for these soldiers who had spent years fighting on the front lines, surviving the brutal battlefield environment was the most important thing. As for other aspects, aesthetics were really irrelevant. The front of the Tiger tank was still fine; some Panther tank crews had already started piling miscellaneous items on their frontal armor to add some so-called protection.

“Rein! If you think we’re not doing a good job, then do it yourself! It’s really annoying to have you nagging on the side!” Alice had a little white paint on the tip of her nose, which made her beautiful face look a bit playful and cute. Combined with her hands-on-hips posture, it made Rein want to laugh.

Moreover, she had a lot of white paint on her hands, and when she put them on her hips, she had smeared a lot of it onto her black tanker’s uniform, adding another color to the already somewhat dirty black fabric. A few drops of white paint were also flicked onto Rein’s lapel by her brush as she turned her head.

And so, a hint of embarrassment crept into Alice’s questioning expression, her original self-righteousness turning into awkwardness. Rein looked at the white paint on his own uniform and could only give a helpless smile.

Bruce, standing to the side, laughed heartily at the two of them. As a result, his hand trembled and he painted over one of the numbers of the famous “113” on the tank. The perfectly fine No. 113 had just become tank No. 13.

Rein covered his eyes with his hand, feeling that his command was a classic example of failure. He felt he shouldn’t have left these two to do the painting, and should have sent Andre and Baumann to the battalion headquarters to get tents and machine gun ammunition instead.

In the morning, the battalion had called a meeting for all the tank commanders to assign combat missions. Their battalion was to travel south at night. After reaching the southern area of Novomoskovsk, they were to attack eastward, capture a small village codenamed N182, and then follow the main force of Army Group G to continue attacking the Soviet Red Army in the direction of Kharkov and Donetsk.

The mission for their entire panzer battalion and some surrounding grenadier units was to capture Pavlohrad, then advance east to Lozova, occupy Sloviansk, and cut in between the two important cities of Donetsk and Kharkov to encircle the Soviet Red Army in those two directions.

Just a few hours ago, the front of List’s Army Group E had been fiercely attacked by a powerful Soviet armored group. The High Command had figured out Zhukov’s strategic intention. The defensive fortifications in the northern region of Kiev had begun to be strengthened for a protracted defensive battle.

The defensive pressure on the Kiev front had suddenly eased. At least, the High Command felt that the Soviet Red Army in this direction lacked the strength and equipment for an offensive. So, after hearing a personal report from General von Bock and other military representatives in Berlin, Akado had ordered an immediate counter-attack, to advance a certain distance further in the southern region to force the Soviet Red Army in the north to retreat.

And so, several of the most combat-effective German army groups began to crawl towards the front line, including Guderian’s Army Group G and Model’s Army Group D, all of which began to advance eastward. If one included Manstein’s Army Group M, over 500,000 German troops had begun to deploy in an offensive formation on the Kiev front.

“Forget it, 13 is 13. It’s just a number anyway. After the paint dries, we’ll be on our way in the afternoon. Alice, check our canned food and other supplies. Bruce, go and check the ammunition. Put the new armor-piercing rounds in an easy-to-reach place, we might need them,” Rein said, looking helplessly at his tank and then at his clothes. In the end, this was the only arrangement he could make.

Not long after, all the tanks of the battalion were assembled and began their long trek along the road. Following them was an armored grenadier regiment of the 3rd SS Panzer Division, plus the entire division’s organic artillery. Behind them was a Panther tank regiment, then the division headquarters where Division Commander Freericks was located, with the 2nd Panzer Regiment and other units bringing up the rear. The entire 3rd Panzer Division, in a mighty procession, headed for the position from which they needed to launch their attack.

The tank tracks crunched over the white snow, then kicked up the already compacted white snow, or rather, a white mixture of ice and snow. The tracks of the tanks following behind were soon packed with ice, snow, and black mud. The tanks further back drove directly on the muddy ground along the ruts, and one could even see withered, dead grass mixed in.

The muddy and winding roads were definitely a huge test for the German armored forces. Fortunately, the tracks of the German tanks were much wider than those of the Panzer III and IV of another timeline, so they were less likely to get stuck in the mud. Although slow, the entire armored force could still advance along the road.

Baumann, while complaining about the typically muddy Soviet-style roads, carefully controlled the clutch of the Tiger tank. Under his driving, the tank ran quite smoothly and did not seem to struggle much to keep up with the tank in front.

Rein leaned against the commander’s hatch, staring blankly at the fields in the distance. There, an infantry corps under Model’s command was trudging along. They had set off a day earlier and had now been caught up by the mechanized 3rd SS Panzer Division. These infantry were responsible for covering the flank of the 3rd Panzer Division. Their white camouflage was not very conspicuous in the snow, but Rein could still see an endless stream of soldiers spreading out into the distance in the snow.

It was as if thousands of snowmen had come to life. These German soldiers, wearing white snow-hooded parkas and helmets with white camouflage covers, were trudging forward with difficulty in the already gray fields. Some warhorses were struggling in the mud, neighing as they strained to pull the 105mm infantry guns behind them. Compared to the main German forces, the equipment of the infantry under Model was not very good, but their combat effectiveness was by no means low.

Rein withdrew his gaze. Before moving out, the armored troops had been strictly forbidden by their respective battalion commanders from carrying infantry in the muddy snow to avoid affecting the overall speed of advance in case of a stall or getting stuck. In this harsh weather, there were still many details that the German army was not accustomed to, which they were gradually getting used to. But before they were used to it, no one dared to take risks.

The space that could have barely held four infantrymen was now secured with ropes holding several barrels of antifreeze, some spare gasoline, and extra ammunition. Each tank was helping the battalion’s logistics unit carry a lot of junk. Some tanks had spare parts, some had common tools, but most had ammunition and fuel. After all, this was a long-distance march.

The sky was still gray. The clouds were like a thick cotton quilt, making it impossible to see the sun. It had to be said that the Soviets were truly very familiar with the harsh weather of their own territory. The time they had chosen for their offensive was very favorable. In this kind of weather, Germany’s massive air force could basically only stay at home, waiting for the clouds to gradually disperse. The snowflakes drifted down, one by one, very slowly and lightly, looking elegant and calm, as if this war had nothing to do with it, as if its brief existence was for the sake of elegance and calm.

Having lost most of the advantage of their air force, the Germans had lost an important element of their firepower. Compared to the Soviet Red Army, which relied mainly on ground fire, this time at least allowed them to regain some of their firepower advantage and was more conducive to their offensive.

This is war. Even if you are unwilling a thousand times over, you still have to go to the battlefield at the most reluctant of times and fight a battle with an enemy who is clever to the bone, a battle where you have strength but cannot use it. Sometimes you can choose the place of battle, and sometimes that right is on your enemy’s side.

In the headset, on the company channel, Markus was still chattering away. From the moment they had set off, he had been endlessly telling Rein what to do if they encountered Wolf. But Rein had not answered him, so he had just been talking to himself. It was clear that Wolf had put a great deal of psychological pressure on him, making this super tank ace, who had already painted 58 kill markings on his tank, a little flustered.

Rein did not speak because he had been sketching in his mind, sketching a strange outline, a Stalin tank from a photograph. Although it was a photo of a burned-out Stalin tank, Rein could imagine what it originally looked like. He sketched this tank and then added a black five-pointed star on it. That tank was Wolf’s vehicle. When they encountered it, they had to be on their guard.

Alice was clearly a bit carefree. She was using the tank’s backup radio channel to listen to a broadcast from Germany. It had patriotic songs, which was much better than listening to a bunch of stinking men talk nonsense. Although it was against the rules, as the owner of all the radio equipment on this Tiger tank, Alice considered it her right to do so.

In the evening, the entire armored division stopped to make camp. It was said that further ahead was the area where Model’s 10th Panzer Corps was engaging the Soviet forces. They could no longer see the marching German infantry around them, but in the distance, they could see the continuous flames and the thick smoke that was clearly visible against the firelight. That was a burning village, and a destroyed city.

Published: 2025-09-20T03:07:59.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-03-02T19:10:34.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c704-elegant-139307873

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